Gambler

The venerable and classic Gambler Hat is a cross between a western hat and an outback style hat.  It has a round, oval crown like an outback with a wide, slightly upturned brim like a western.  It may have a small pencil-rolled edge.  It also tends to have a lower profile than a typical western or cowboy style hat. 

The Gambler was also known as a Planter’s Hat and was often thought of as a wealthy man’s classier alternative to an ordinary cowboy hat.  So why did they call it a Gambler Hat?  Maybe riverboat gamblers wore them to convey the image of being a wealthy propertied person. 

Or maybe it’s just popular culture. After all, every 1800s riverboat gambler in every Hollywood movie wears this type of wide-brimmed, low flat-crowned hat. In our collective imagination, this is definitely the hat that most old-time professional gamblers wore at those high-stakes, pull-a-derringer-when-accused-of-cheating, poker games.  If you're going to wear this one to a card game you better know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em!